What Jesus Do You See? (2)

Life of the Church

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Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our worship service. I hope you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving. It’s good to see you all here this morning.

‌I have a few announcements I’d like to highlight from your bulletin.

‌Our next deacon meeting will be tomorrow night. If you’re a deacon, please try to attend.

‌We’re also coming up on the deadline for ordering a Christmas poinsettia. If you’d like to place one of those in the church for Christmas, please fill out the form in your bulletin.

‌Also, mark your calendars for next Saturday. We’ll be having our church-wide Christmas dinner here in the sanctuary. If you haven’t signed up yet to attend, please do so in order for us to plan how much food we need.

‌If you are free this coming Thursday morning, please come and help decorate the church for Advent and to set up for our dinner.

‌Also, please pray for Judy Wagner. She lost her sister, Georgia Ahalt, this morning. Georgia had been battling cancer. We’ll get you details if any funeral arrangements when they become known, but in the meantime please keep the Ahalt and Wagner families in your prayers.

Sue, do you have anything?

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‌Opening Prayer

‌Let’s pray:

‌Father as we move from this season of Thanksgiving into Advent and Christmas, we are struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the many blessings You pour out on us, and for the biggest blessing of them all — the earthly birth of Your son. In him is the source of every good thing — our love, our joy, and most of all, our hope. Let that hope come alive in us, Father. Let it be our comfort and our assurance. Let that hope be the foundation for our lives. For we ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

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Sermon

‌It takes a lot to get ready for Christmas, doesn’t it? I’ve seen plenty of houses around town that already have lights up. I’ve seen Christmas trees in windows. Most of us are already trying to get our shopping done, or figuring out what we need to shop for, or starting to bake cookies and make plans. We do all of this with one goal in mind — get things taken care of as completely as possible so we can enjoy the season like we’re supposed to.

‌If that’s the case with all the material things we feel like we have to do for Christmas, it’s even more so to get ready spiritually.

‌We’re entering the second holiest time of the year. The only thing that can beat Christmas is Easter. The only thing that can top the Son of God being born into the world for us is the Son of God being resurrected for us. We celebrate Jesus every Sunday, but during this time of year we celebrate him even more.

‌But just like we want to get all of our shopping and decorating and baking done so we can enjoy the season like we’re supposed to, Jesus wants our hearts in the right place for the same reason. He wants us to enjoy every bit of the joy Christmas offers, but there’s only one way to do it — by making sure that the Savior we honor is the real Jesus of the Bible instead of a false Jesus that we make up ourselves.

‌Here’s what I mean by that.

‌No matter how much faith we have or how close our relationship to God is, we’re still broken human beings, and a big part of being a broken human being is that we love jumping to conclusions. We love reading into things what isn’t there at all.

‌If something happens to us that seems bad or someone says something nasty to us in passing, it’s natural to form and opinion that’s based on our own fears and insecurities. That bad thing didn’t happen because life’s just like that, it happened because God’s mad at me. That person didn’t say what he did because he’s in a bad mood, he just doesn’t like me.

‌We do the same thing with Jesus all the time, and I want to talk about that today because next Sunday is the start of Advent, the church’s Christmas season. We’re going to be celebrating Jesus and everything his birth means for us, so we need to make sure the Jesus we’re celebrating is the real one of heaven and earth instead of a fake one made up of our own feelings. Because Christmas can be a tough time for a lot of us, and the amount of comfort and peace we experience during this time of year all depends on the Christ we worship.

‌One of the greatest promises Jesus makes in scripture is the last thing he says in Matthew’s gospel — “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Isn’t that amazing? Jesus promises that, and Jesus always keeps his promises. He will always be with you in whatever you’re going through. He’s right there beside you — protecting you, helping you, encouraging you to hang on because everything’s better in the end.

‌But the amount of strength and hope that you feel from that promise completely depends on your view of Jesus. Who is the Jesus who’s with you always? When Jesus says, “I’m with you in your suffering,” how does that make you feel? Comforted, or fearful? Hopeful, or shameful?

‌We’re going to take a look at two people who struggled to see the real Jesus because they’d already made up their minds about who Jesus was. In a moment of weakness, something in them transformed the real Jesus into a false one, and it’s the same things that cause us to do the same thing — one of them is fear, and the other is doubt.

‌Let’s start with fear, and for that we’re going to turn to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8, verses 40-48:

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40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.

‌41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house,

‌42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

‌As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.

‌43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.

‌44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.

‌45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”

‌46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”

‌47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.

‌48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

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And this is God’s word.

‌It’s amazing how much of Jesus’s ministry was done on the way to do his ministry. Think of the woman at the well, one of the most famous stories of the gospels. That story happened while Jesus was heading somewhere else. It’s the same thing here. Jesus is going to heal the daughter of a rabbi named Jairus, and on the way to Jairus’s house, he encounters a woman who is in desperate need.

‌Verse 43 says she’s had a discharge of blood for twelve years. This woman has been menstruating for a dozen years without stopping.

‌We also see in verse 43 that she’s spent all the money she had on doctors. She’s tried one treatment after another, one cure after another, and nothing’s worked.

‌Just by this verse alone, we can say six things about this woman:

‌First, she’s hopeless — the doctors have done all they can do for her, and she has nowhere else to go.

Second, she’s poor — all her money is gone.

‌Third, she’s in constant pain and exhaustion.

‌Fourth, because of the nature of this woman’s illness, she can’t have children. And in that culture where family came second only to God, a woman who couldn’t bear children was considered worthless.

‌Fifth, and this is worst of all, because of this woman’s illness, she’s considered ceremonially unclean.

‌Remember last week when we talked about Philip and the eunuch? The eunuch went all the way to Jerusalem but couldn’t worship in the Temple because of who he was. Because of who he was, he was ceremonially unclean. It’s the same with this poor woman.

‌She can’t go to public worship. Which means she can’t offer a sacrifice for her sins. Which means she can’t be forgiven. Which means her sins just keep piling up higher and higher.

‌And since she’s unclean according to the law, no one is allowed to touch her. If someone touches this woman, then she makes them unclean too.

‌That means this woman is an outcast. This woman has gone twelve years without any physical contact whatsoever. She’s gone twelve years without a hug. Twelve years without anyone taking her hand and praying for her. Twelve years without being with her family. She’s completely cut off, completely alone.

‌Can you imagine that? When we think of people suffering in the Bible, we usually think of Job, don’t we? Or we think of Joseph in the Old Testament. But it’s hard to look through the Bible and find someone in worse shape than this.

‌Because at least Job and Joseph had names. This woman doesn’t. This woman is so alone, so filthy, so insignificant in the eyes of the world that she’s not even given a name.

‌There’s such a contrast between these two people who need Jesus’s help. Jairus has a daughter who’s 12 years old and sick. This woman has been sick for 12 years.

‌He’s the ruler of the synagogue. She’s not even allowed in the synagogue.

‌He has a name everybody knows. She’s not even given a name.

‌He’s respected. She’s rejected.

‌But both of these people have one thing in common: they both know Jesus can help them. But they each go about getting that help in two different ways.

‌Jairus runs right to Jesus, doesn’t he? He falls down right in front of the Lord. And Jairus can do that because he thinks he’s a good man. He’s a holy man. He follows all the rules. He does everything right. He feels like he can look Jesus right in the eyes and ask for help.

‌But this woman? She can’t do that, because she’s afraid. Everyone tells her she’s disgusting, so why wouldn’t Jesus do the same? Everyone tells her that God’s rejected her, so why wouldn’t God tell her that too?

‌When you’re fearful of Jesus, when you think you’re too sinful, too broken, too lost to even approach him, knowing that he’s always with you doesn’t sound like a promise, it sounds like a threat.

‌Because when he looks at you, there’s just disappointment in his eyes. He’s not there to help you, he’s there to judge you. He’s not there to comfort you, he’s there to say, “Quit your whining. This is all your fault. I’m not going to help you because you don’t deserve my help. The only thing you deserve is all the terrible things happening to you.”‌

That’s what this woman is feeling. She’s afraid of Jesus. She knows God can’t accept her, but she still believes God can help her, and that’s why she weaves her way through the crowd to sneak up behind Jesus. Because she can’t dare face him.

‌In verse 44, she touches the fringe of his garment. That’s all she thinks she needs to do. Don’t bother him, definitely don’t talk to him. Just touch him. So she does. And in that moment, her bleeding stops.

‌Now, what she does takes faith, doesn’t it? It’s the kind of faith that only desperation can bring. But what’s this woman really trying to do when you get right down to it? She’s trying to get God’s blessing without getting God, isn’t she? And we can understand why. She’s unclean. She’s been cut off from everyone. In fact, it’s actually illegal for her to even be in the crowd.

‌But she’s desperate, and when she touches the fringe of Jesus’s garment, the Greek word actually means she clutches it. She’s trembling with fear as she reaches out, then she grabs hold of Jesus in hope, and then there is a moment of pure joy as she feels herself healed.

‌But right after that moment of joy comes more fear than she’s ever known. Jesus stops and says, “Who touched me?” because you can’t have God’s blessing without God Himself.

‌Does Jesus know who touched him? Yes, of course he does. So what’s he doing? He’s giving this woman the opportunity to come forward. He’s giving her a chance to get what’s even better than the healing, and that’s the God who provides the healing.

‌And this poor woman can’t hide anymore. She’s hidden herself away for 12 years, but that time’s over.

‌So she approaches Jesus in verse 47 — she doesn’t have a choice. She falls down before him and tells everyone why she’d touched him — and by the way, how embarrassing would something like that be? But she has to say it, because if she doesn’t tell everyone what was wrong with her, she can’t also tell everyone that Jesus has healed her.

‌Kneeling there before Christ, this woman is facing her greatest fear. She’s afraid Jesus is going to reject her like everyone else has. Jesus is going to be angry and cast her out. This filthy woman dared to touch God. She dared to rob Him of a blessing. And now she’s going to pay.

‌Is the Jesus you know the kind of Jesus who would do something like that? You better think about that question, because it’s important.

‌Is the Jesus you believe in a Jesus of anger? Is he a Jesus who looks at you and just shakes his head in disappointment because of who you are and what you’ve done? Is he a Jesus who only loves you because he has to?

‌Because if that’s Jesus to you, then you don’t worship the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is the one who answers you the same as he answers this woman in verse 48: “Your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

‌Shocking, isn’t it? Because what’s happened here? This unclean woman has just touched God. She’s been healed. But what’s happened to Jesus? He’s still the same, isn’t he? Jesus is still clean.

‌Usually when an unclean thing touches something clean, the clean thing becomes unclean. Right?

‌If I’m sick and I sneeze on you and then you get sick, what do you say? “You gave me your cold.” I’m still sick, but now we’re both sick. Because when something unclean touches something else that’s clean, it’s always the clean thing that gets ruined.

‌But when you take your sin to Jesus, the opposite that happens. What’s clean stays clean, but what’s unclean gets made clean too. That’s the heart of the gospel. That’s what Christianity is all about. On the cross, Christ took on all of our uncleanliness. He remained clean, and so turned us clean.

‌That’s the Gospel. The Gospel says that we’re all more wicked than we can ever realize, but more loved and accepted than we could ever dream. Sinners and outcasts are forgiven and made family, and how do we know that? Because of what Jesus calls this woman in verse 48 — Daughter.

‌He calls her Daughter.

‌This is the only person Jesus ever calls by that name. Did you know that? It’s a name that expresses the most intimate, tender relationship possible. In fact, translate that word from the Greek, you could read that as Jesus calling her something like, “Sweetheart.”

‌Imagine that. The girl nobody wanted gets adopted by the Son of God as a daughter of God. The girl no one dared to touch is embraced by the strongest and most tender arms in the universe. This woman has no father, so Jesus becomes her father.

‌It’s maybe the most profound moment in the Gospels, right there in verse 48. Because right here Jesus answers the most fundamental question of religion: what’s it like to lay all of your shame and ugliness, all of your sin, before a holy God? Terrifying. Shameful.

‌But what happens? God takes you in his arms, he looks you in the eyes, and he says, “I forgive you, Sweetheart, and I love you.”

‌Don’t ever let your fear turn Jesus into someone he’s not. Let your trust in Jesus reveal who he truly is.

‌But there’s another way we can’t see Jesus clearly, and it’s maybe the biggest way. It’s our doubt. It’s not being able to understand what’s happened to us and why a loving God would allow it. And for that, we turn to Matthew chapter 11 and John the Baptist. Turn there with me. Matthew chapter 11, verses 1-6:

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11:1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

‌2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples

‌3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

‌4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:

‌5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

‌6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

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And this is God’s word.

‌There are four Roman rulers over Palestine as this point. One of them is Herod, and Herod has taken his brother’s wife as his own.

‌John the Baptist being who he is, he’s not going to stand for that. John goes right into the palace and confronts Herod about it, and gets thrown right in jail.

‌That’s where we find John in this passage. He’s been rotting away in prison for almost the last two years.

‌Herod’s wife wants John dead, and John knows that if nothing happens, Herod’s wife will get her wish. And so every morning when John wakes up, he knows there’s a good chance he won’t live to see the sun go down. He’s running out of time.

‌Day in, day out. Trapped in that tiny prison cell. Little water, hardly any food. A hole in the ground for a bathroom. For even someone like John the Baptist, one of the heroes of scripture, that’s when faith starts to waver. That’s when the doubts creep in.

‌If you have never known the pain of doubting whether God is there, whether God is real, then get ready because one day you will.

‌We all have to face our time in the prison cell of faith sooner or later. We all have to know the grief of searching for God and not finding Him.

‌Jesus himself faced that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. And if even Jesus had to endure that, who are we to think we won’t?

‌John is suffering from a crisis of faith. How did God allow him to end up in prison? Why is God allowing his servant to suffer like this?

‌John needs comfort. He needs his faith restored. So he sends a few of his disciples to Jesus and they ask him, “Are you really who you say you are? Are you the Messiah?”

‌That sounds like a strange thing coming from John, doesn’t it? After all, his entire ministry, his life’s purpose, was to announce Jesus as the Christ.

‌When he baptized Jesus, he said, “Behold, the lamb of God.”

‌But he isn’t so sure of that now. John’s in that cell, locked in the darkness. But it’s more than that, too.

‌John can’t be surprised to find himself in prison. If you speak out against Herod, there are going to be consequences. But if we read between the lines here, it’s pretty obvious that John’s been in that cell for two years thinking that Jesus is going to bust him out. Jesus is going to save him. He has to, because Jesus loves John, doesn’t he?

‌Jesus isn’t going to let John sit in that cell and rot. Jesus won’t let John, his own cousin, die at the hands of Herod. But it’s been two years now, and John’s still waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And every day he has to wait, his doubts grow a little more.

‌So how does Jesus answer John’s disciples? The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.

‌What Jesus doesn’t say here is just as telling as what he does say. He doesn’t come right out and give the answer that John so craves to hear, does he? Jesus doesn’t say, “Tell John yes, I am the Messiah.”

‌Instead he gives John’s disciples a prophecy that’s found mainly in Isaiah 35: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

‌Jesus uses the very prophet who prophesied the arrival of John to argue his case that yes, yes, John, I am the Messiah.

‌But he doesn’t give all of Isaiah’s prophesies. There’s one that Jesus leaves out, and you can bet John thought of this as well when his disciples returned to tell him all of what Jesus said. That prophecy is found in Isaiah 61:1:

‌“he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”

‌Jesus leaves that part out, and you can imagine John’s heart sinking. Jesus isn’t going to come save him. John’s going to stay in that prison, and he’s going to die. But then comes one of the most profound and important sentences you will find in the entire Bible, right there at Matthew 11:6.

‌Jesus has told John’s disciples these things, and there’s a break in his speaking. You can tell that by the word “and” that begins the verse. It’s as if John’s disciples have turned away to walk back to the prison, and Jesus is watching them, and then he calls out and tells them to wait and says, “There’s one more thing. One more important thing. Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

‌That word “offended” in the Greek is better translated as a stumbling block.

‌Blessed is the one who does not stumble because of me.

‌Jesus is telling John, and Jesus is telling you, that there will be times in your life when you will seek me and not find me.

‌There will be times in your life when things happen that you can’t understand, things that will challenge your faith in me and tempt you to walk away.

‌There will be times when you will cry out to me and won’t hear me.

‌Jesus is saying there will be times when you won’t understand what I am doing, but blessed are you if in those times you cling to me and don’t turn away.

‌Blessed are you if you love me even when you don’t understand me, because one day you will. One day it’ll all make sense, and one day you’ll thank me for every moment of your life — even the terrible moments — because then you’ll know. But you can’t know now.

‌That’s the message Jesus sent to John. And you know what? Jesus never came for John the Baptist. John was beheaded not long after. But John received all he needed to know. He was one of the giants of the Bible, but John the Baptist was just like us.

‌He wanted a God he could understand completely. He wanted a God who always made sense. But what he learned was that a God we can understand and a God who always makes sense is a God who’s just like us, which is a God who isn’t worth worshipping at all.

‌Doubt makes Jesus seem powerless. When you doubt and Jesus says, “I am with you always,” you think it doesn’t make much of a difference.

‌Maybe Jesus really is powerful, but you doubt that he cares for you enough to help you through your struggles. Maybe he really is powerful, but you have to clean the sin up in your life before he can do anything.

‌But Jesus says, “No. It’s not like that at all. I’m always with you, I’m always working in you and around you. I’m always arranging things for the greatest possible blessing you can receive.

‌“It might not always feel that way, but do you trust your feelings or do you trust me? It might not always look that way, but do you trust your own eyes or the eyes of faith? Don’t trust the plan. Trust the planner. Blessed are you if you do not fall away because of me.”

‌Don’t fashion your Jesus from your own fears, like the woman he healed who was afraid to face him. And don’t fashion your Jesus from your own doubts, like John the Baptist. Jesus says, “Instead of all that, look at me. Look at the true me.”

‌And we see that true Jesus in our last scripture. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 43. Let’s read verses 1-3:

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Isaiah 43:1–4 (ESV): Israel’s Only Savior

‌43:1 But now thus says the Lord,

‌he who created you, O Jacob,

‌he who formed you, O Israel:

‌”Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

‌I have called you by name, you are mine.

‌2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

‌and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

‌when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

‌and the flame shall not consume you.

‌3 For I am the Lord your God,

‌the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

‌Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

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And let’s go ahead and read verse 4 as well:

‌4 Because you are precious in my eyes,

‌and honored, and I love you,

‌I give men in return for you,

‌peoples in exchange for your life.

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Jesus doesn’t just love you. Jesus made you. He knows your name. Have you ever stopped to really think about the fact that Jesus knows your name? You are his. You are precious in his eyes. You are honored.

‌He gave himself … for you. He won’t leave you. Ever. No matter what, he is going to protect the most important part of you, the part of you that’s truly and completely you — your soul.

‌Stop thinking about your body. That body you have is only good for 80, 90 years. Sometimes less. This life you live? It’s a rehearsal for eternity.

‌Now matters only in the sense that it prepares you for later — for heaven, and the new Earth. And later — that’s what matters most, because that will be forever.

‌Remember the story of the fiery furnace? King Nebuchadnezzar put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a furnace because they wouldn’t stop worshipping God.

‌Remember before they were delivered from the fire, a fourth person appeared in that furnace with them? That was Christ. It was Jesus making a special visit to earth before he was born.

Christ could have just as easily appeared next to king Nebuchadnezzar. He could have appeared at a safe and comfortable distance from that fire and told those three men to come out. That would have shown his power. But he didn’t do that. Jesus joined them in the fire instead, because that showed both his power and his love.

‌That’s what he does for you as well. When Jesus says, “I am with you,” he says it as someone who understands your pain, and your weakness, and your fear, and your struggle, because he experienced all those things as well. He endured all of that on the cross just so you’d never have to face anything on your own.

‌That’s the real Jesus. That’s the Jesus we’re going to be celebrating all next month. Him coming into the world means you’ll never be alone. Faith in him means your future has already been decided. You still might be in the middle of the story, but the last sentence has already been written. That’s the Jesus you need to know. And if you don’t know him, I invite you down front as we sing our closing hymn.

‌Let’s pray:

‌Father, in this world we are met with so many disappointments. The things we put our faith and trust in constantly fail us, and we wonder where You are and what You’re doing. But You call us to not put our hope in things, whether they’re our blessings, our feelings, or the dreams and expectations we have. Our hope isn’t in imperfect things, it’s in a perfect person — Your Son, the one who put on flesh and bone to live among us and die for us. In him is our hope made real. In him is our eternal assurance. Help us keep Christ in our hearts each day, Father, knowing that in him is every blessing. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.